Plastic Pollution is out of control in Cape Town - choking our waterways, degrading habitats, injuring or killing wildlfie. We believe that concerted action is needed from all of us to stop and reverse what is happening.
The Big Black River (above) | A Tribunal Of Rivers That Enter The Ocean
December 2018. The surface plastic is really minute in comparison to the plastic bags below the water. This area is home to over 200 bird species. One of the many consequences of this plastic stream is that young hatchlings are fed toxic plastic by their mothers which they mistake for food. The result is that they die a slow torturous death of starvation and ruptured organs.
Watch an example of this here: https://vimeo.com/264508490
Watch a shocking live video to see how fast the plastic moves down the river in the video at the bottom of the page.
Don't wait for the government or anyone else. It's up to us to make a difference. Refuse plastic and make your voice heard.
Black/ Swart River | The Final Outlet Of All Rivers Into The Sea
For Mandela Day 2018, Beauty Without Cruelty decided a clean-up of a section of the Black River in Cape Town, near the sea was in order.
A 500m stretch yielded almost 70 bags of litter, from one side! Beauty Without Cruelty organisation was joined by about 40 people, individuals as well as representatives of Greenpeace, Future4Wildlife and Anonymous for the Voiceless. An audit was done of everything collected, and unfortunately it turned out that nothing that we collected could be recycled. The worst part was that the following day, it looked exactly as it did before we started.
The Great White pelicans on the Black River are threatened with extinction. The river and pans next to the river are also host to the endangered West leopard toad. The Raapenberg area of the river is a very important duck-breeding area, while environmentalists believe that the Cape otter and water mongoose – both of whom are rare – are still in the river, despite pollution.
Lourens River, Strand (Overberg) | Helderberg Ocean Awareness Movement
Let's not forget about the intermittently high levels of microbial pollution from sewerage pumping out into our seas according to the South African Journal Of Science PDF here.
The main outfalls are at Kuils River, Hout Bay, Camps Bay and Mouillie Point as well as the stormwater drain pollution such as the Strand (above). Persistent pollutants include pharmaceutical and personal healthcare products such as over-the-counter and prescription drugs and household products such as soaps, detergents, disinfectants, perfumes, dental care products, skin and hair products, and surfactants.
There is growing evidence that certain emerging contaminants could affect human and environmental health. For example, the veterinary use of diclofenac, which is a human pharmaceutical used as an anti-inflammatory treatment, was found to be responsible for the massive decline in populations of vulture species in certain areas of Asia; also ethinylestradiol, one of the active ingredients in the contraceptive pill associated with endocrine disruption and feminisation in fish.
Zeekoeivlei Muizenberg | Aerial View & Daily "Trash Catch"
A concerned citizen of Muizenberg installed the above nets. They catch plastic, household items, and polystyrene amongst others.
Oil, sludge & medical supplies (used syringes for example) from the nearby factories bypass these nets and contaminate our seas. Research shows that the plastic ends up back on our plates to be found in our water, fish, salt, beer etc.
The vast majority of our oxygen is created in the oceans which are now filled with highly toxic pollution...
A few statistics:
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Our whales are dying with up to 1000 pieces of plastic found in their stomachs. Wales are not able to give birth to their young because their endocrine systems have been disrupted by our toxic trash and if they do, the infants die of drinking toxic milk from the mother. There is no doubt that these animals are suffering beyond measure.
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The "Alliance to End Plastic Waste" (formed by the plastics industry) has committed $1Billion to reduce plastic production and improve recycling. These same companies are also investing many billions of dollars for new plastic productions plants. Read more
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Some of the toxic plastics include phthalate plasticizers and BPA amoungst others. These are found in many mass produced products including medical devices, food packaging, bottled water, perfumes, cosmetics, toys, flooring materials, computers and compact discs. These plastics break down over time as Phthalates leach out of products, when repeatedly washed & exposed to heat. BPA has been recognized as an endocrine disrupting chemical that interferes with normal hormonal function. Recent studies show a negative effect on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of foetuses, infants and children. Reference here and here
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255 big black refuse bags of plastic are removed from a section of just one river in Cape Town monthly. There are dozens of rivers in the Western Cape alone. All of this and our raw sewerage gets pumped out into the sea.
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40 million litres of raw sewerage is pumped out into the sea at Moullie Point daily. The European Union refuses to import fish from our coastline due to the high level of toxicity found in the fish. Reference here.